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Wait a minute. “The most significant car Carroll has ever produced?” How dare we claim that?! How can we even begin to compare this modern-day concoction to Shelby’s own LeMans-winning, Ferrari-ass-kicking Cobra? My God, the Cobra is not only the ultimate American musclecar, it’s world renowned as one of the greatest automotive icons of all time.

That’s all true, but consider the following as a “why” the Series 1 is Carroll’s most newsworthy effort yet: The Series 1 is the first car the legendary snake-charmer has ever created from the ground up. Yep, that’s right. The very first machine that’s pure Shelby from top to bottom and (in spirit, if not exactly literally) inside and out. It’s the embodiment of everything the great Shel’ has learned about great cars in his 75 years.

Conceived by Carroll as the modern lightweight two-seater he’s longed for years to build, the Series 1 was planned from the start to be outfitted with a high-tech powertrain, fortified with the stiffest chassis he could create, and stuffed with comfort items unheard of in a Cobra, such as air conditioning, power windows, and a CD player. All for the lofty pricetag of around $100,000. But the Series 1 is not intended to compete with a Viper, Vette, or anything else. Carroll created it to be its own machine, a unique vehicle capable of melding all-out race car dynamics with superb on-road comfort.

Inside the Series 1, you’ll quickly see how clean-sheet a design it is. Unlike a specialty car based on a Corvette (a la Callaway) or a Porsche (a la Ruf) or a Mustang (Saleen), this animal is its own species. It doesn’t look like any other car, it doesn’t share chassis dimensions with any other car, and it certainly doesn’t drive like any other car. It’s as much all-Shelby as you can get in this age of emissionization (requiring a partner such as Delphi to do the development work), crashworthiness (finite element-analysis time on a Cray Supercomputer is more expensive than a heart transplant-and Carroll ought to know), and computerization (try to crack the engine-management codes on a new powerplant without inside help). The real-world bottom line is that a small-volume manufacturer such as Shelby American cannot possibly build a modern car of its own without serious engineering assistance from a major automaker.

But don’t think this is a car designed by some new-age GM marketing committee. This is Carroll’s baby through and through. The frame: designed and built by Shelby American and its engineering partners. The body: the same. The suspension: ditto. The interior: yeah, you got it. The overall size, shape, look, and purpose: all Shelby, all the time. Aside from the Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0-liter DOHC V-8, RBT/ZF six-speed transaxle and a handful of parts-bin items (gauges, mirrors, ventilation system controller, and pedal assembly), this car couldn’t be any more Carroll Shelby if they bottled his essence and mixed it into the goo that bonds the carbon-fiber body panels.

By comparison, the first Cobras were British AC Aces in basic design, engorged by Shelbyized Ford 260- or 289-cube V-8s and tough-as-nails four-speed gearboxes. The later Cobra 427s did receive Shelby’s modified frame and suspension designs, but they were (regardless of their deity-like levels of awesomeness) still merely someone else’s car the ol’ master modified for racing.

“It’s not supposed to be a modern-day Cobra,” Shelby is quick to bark when asked the inevitable question. And he’s loath to make comparisons to the car that made him famous. But such comparisons are inevitable and well founded by the throngs of Shelby aficionados across the planet who might fear that this machine could water down the value of their classic if it fails to live up to the great Shelby mystique.

You can quit worrying. This is a damn good car. A really damn good car!

Motor Trend was granted the exclusive first photo session, first instrumented track test, and first behind-the-scenes, no-secrets-kept immersion into the totality of the Series 1 development experience. From initial concept to early design work, to feasibility studies and prototyping, to mule-car testing regimens, to computer analysis and component redesigns, to the interplay with GM and its Delphi parts division, to the strong integration of such outside vendors as Venture (body and interior engineering and packaging), Multimatic (suspension design, chassis development, and crash analysis), Dura (convertible top), and Lawson Products (fasteners), to emissions testing, to setting up a production facility, to selecting a handful of qualified dealers, to finessing out the quirks in the system, to handbuilding the first preproduction car, to testing it hard and seeing what breaks, to modifying the problem areas, to painting one up all pretty, and culminating with the phone call that told us, “It’s ready, come on out,” Motor Trend was granted carte-blanche access to everything and everyone involved with the creation of this historic car.

This is the car we’ll be telling our grandkids about. About the day we first drove the Shelby Series 1.

Care to come along for the ride?

The BasicsProduction of the Series 1 will be limited to 500 cars, sold through 25 select Oldsmobile/Team Shelby dealers. Shelby American’s assembly line (located in a brand-new 100,000-square-foot facility on the grounds of Las Vegas Motor Speedway) should be fired up about the time you read this, with completion of the build-out scheduled sometime before Dec. 31, 1999. Development budget numbers have, in typical Shelby fashion, been kept close to the vest, but informed sources tell us it’s “somewhere close to $40 million.” That’s a pittance compared to what the typical bureaucratic-laden car manufacturer would have to spend (and a tribute to Shelby American’s lean-and-mean development team of young designers and hard-working suppliers), but it’s a lot of coin nonetheless. Working on an intense development schedule, the Series 1 went from non-running showcar to preproduction prototype in only 18 months, with one entire chassis design built, torn up, and thrown away in the interim. Such a schedule requires a level of dedication usually found only on the best racing teams. Like, say, Carroll’s own ’65 LeMans-winning arsenal of designers and drivers.

“I’ve got a crew of young men that, for the first time, can compare to the Phil Remingtons and Al Dowds and John Olsons at Shelby American 35 years ago,” Shelby says with the enthusiasm of a proud parent. “But,” he adds sternly, “if this car doesn’t do certain things in performance, we won’t do it!”

“We discuss this every day,” adds Shelby American President and Chief Operating Officer Don Rager. “Carroll watches all the power numbers, all the performance numbers, the weight numbers. He hasn’t allowed us to stop short. He knows we won’t get the ultimate power we want, so the power we have has to be as well utilized as possible.”

“Break the shit out of it,” Carroll growls. “This is the first car,” he reminds everyone in the room. “You’re going to break every damn thing on the car in testing. You have to in order to know if it’s any damn good.”

PowertrainThe structure of any car is its chassis, but its heart is the engine. So why choose the relatively small-displacement 4.0-liter Aurora V-8? “Carroll felt it was the highest-technology domestic engine available, and it packages well in our engine bay,” Rager responds.

Then why not use the similar-in-architecture but more powerful Cadillac Northstar? “There’s no racing tie-in with Cadillac,” Rager replies. “The Aurora has proven itself in the IRL [Indy Racing League], and we also had a good relationship with [former] Olds General Manager John Rock when this program was being developed.”

In stock form, the Aurora’s DOHC V-8 produces 250 horsepower at 5600 rpm and only 260 pound-feet of torque at a relatively lofty 4400 rpm. Not a lot of grunt for a Shelby sports car, even one that weighs only 2650 pounds. To build in an additional 70 or so ponies, Shelby’s engineers have stretched to the limits all that can be done to a stock motor without changing displacement or adding a supercharger. Basically, that means new camshafts, a computer chip, a freer-flowing intake manifold, headers, Delphi high-flow catalysts, and a low-restriction Borla stainless-steel exhaust system with 2.25-inch pipe and twin XRI mufflers. The sound is spot-on perfect, with a muscular burble at idle and a ’60s rasp to the pipes when you’re really legging it. Final power figures haven’t been established, but we’re told to expect somewhere around 320 horsepower at 6500 rpm, and 290 pound-feet of torque at 5000 rpm.

The Olds V-8 sits north/south in the Series 1’s engine bay, necessitating a redesign of the mounting points from the motor’s east/west inclination in Auroras. It transfers power to the wheels via a torque tube that ties together the engine and special rear-mounted RBT six-speed transaxle that uses ZF components. But Carroll’s still not completely happy with the setup; he wants to deepen the gearing further to improve acceleration.

Chassis & Suspension“The heavier you are, the harder it is on all the moving parts,” Carroll reminds the MT group as we tour his assembly facility. “I wanted 2450 pounds, but we ended up at 2650. You can’t start taking weight out of a car and make it work. It has to be designed that way because it will always get heavier as you go to build it.”

“We wanted a chassis that’d allow true race-car suspension and handling, yet with a good ride,” Series 1 Program Manager Mark Visconti tells us. “Not some kind of bust-your-hemorrhoids thing that’s too stiff to drive on the street,” Shelby’s quick to add.

To that end, the Series 1’s frame is a relatively complex construction of boxed, extruded aluminum tubes with sheets of Alcoa 6061 T4 welded in between the tubes to form bulkheads, central tunnels, and the floor. The idea is to produce incredible structural integrity with unparalleled torsional rigidity for a street car. Bare, it weights a mere 260 pounds.

Visconti and Hao Wang, Multimatic’s assistant general manager, guide us through the backbone of the car. Multimatic is one of the industry’s largest suspension system suppliers and a leader in developing shock absorbers for numerous Formula One teams. They performed finite-element-analysis studies on the chassis to improve stiffness and ran numerous complex computerized crash simulations detailed enough to serve in lieu of an actual government-spec crash test. However, Shelby is still going to the extra expense of physically crashing a car just to be certain of its safety

A perfect 50/50-percent front/rear weight balance was designed in from the start. The engine is mounted up top by a motor plate that attaches to the top of the frame. Also, a shear plate bolted to the front of the engine adds structure and helps compartmentalize the vehicle in the event of a frontal crash. All front suspension components mount to the motor plate with isolated bearings to reduce road vibrations transferring to the chassis and the passenger compartment. The suspension is made of aluminum upper and lower A-arms, pushrod/rocker arm operated inboard mounted coil-over Multimatic/Dynamic Suspension gas shocks (true F1 technology, $1200 each!) with two-way (jounce/rebound) adjustments via a remote oil reservoir. The springs are 220-inch/pound linear rate units, and there’s only a tiny 51/48-inch tubular anti-roll bar because there’s virtually no roll to control. The rocker-arm suspension design was chosen because it reduces unsprung weight and improves packaging.

The rear suspension design is essentially a duplicate of the front. However, a giant aluminum upper crossmember provides structure while a lower carrier locates the transaxle and connects to the chassis with four rubber bushings for vibration reduction; the upper carrier connects to the chassis via two rubber bushings. The suspension components are identical to the front pieces, but no rear anti-roll bar is necessary. Visconti tells us chassis stiffness is an impressive 52 hertz (25-27 hertz is considered excellent), giving the Shelby about twice the rigidity of most sports cars.

“The idea is to keep the maximum contact patch, keep the tire as flat on the ground as possible, during cornering,” Wang explains. “Because the chassis and suspension were designed correctly,” he continues, “we don’t need negative camber. It’s set at zero.”

The four-wheel ventilated disc brakes are GM parts-bin units (don’t say Corvette) sized 13-inch diameter front/12-inch rear, with PBR calipers (dual piston front; single rear) and semi-metallic pads. There’s no anti-lock system because Shelby’s engineers say it would cost too much to develop, and because few systems work well on the racetrack, which is where Carroll hopes many of his new cars will spend some time. Speedline three-piece wheels were chosen for their light weight (only 25 pounds each) and made in a design unique to the Series 1. They are a mammoth 18×10.0 inches up front (with a 45-millimeter offset) and 18×12.0 inches out back (with a 28-millimeter offset) and mount Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar rubber, sized 265/40ZR18 and 315/40ZR18, respectively.

Body & InteriorKirk Harkins, Shelby’s fabrication and prototype manager, puts it clearly into perspective. “Think about it: This is the first complete ground-up car Shelby has ever built. How do you design it so that it doesn’t look like a Viper, Vette, Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, or anything else? A bit of Cobra is okay, but this is not a new Cobra. It is its own car. So where would you start?”

Shelby started with his own ideas of what a modern two-seat sports car should be. Then his stylists created the concept car that debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 1997. Public reaction was very strong (“Women particularly like the shape,” Don Rager tells us) and the decision to bring the Series 1 to production was made. But it wasn’t as easy as tooling up for manufacture of the show car’s body panels. Similar to the complete dimensional transformation that took place when the Viper show car became the Viper production car, the Series 1 also changed in virtually every measurement. But like the production Viper, it looks essentially identical to the crowd-pleasing concept vehicle.

“Shelby’s people created a great-looking car,” Venture Industries Sales and Marketing Manager Bill Young tells us. “But then they came to us, and our job was to digitize the body, fix the ergonomics, and marry the frame structure and body componentry. They’re not doing cottage-industry car building. When we’re done, you’ll be able to build these cars like any OEM vehicle with complete data.”

The production bodies will utilize carbon fiber and fiberglass construction for a combo of light weight and affordability (versus all carbon fiber). The process will be vacuum-bag formed and hand laminated. The bare body weighs just 135 pounds. “This is the result of a two-year involvement with Shelby,” James Seeling Jr., a Venture project engineer, tells us. “We’ll make all the interior and exterior body panels,” Venture’s product development engineer, Garry Martiss, interjects, adding, “some panels, such as the hood, will be made in our Australia plant.”

From most angles, the Series 1 is decidedly retro in style, with a hint of Cobra, but mostly it has its own look. Up front, simple single round headlamps are covered by clear plexiglass a la Jaguar XKE, but conversely, the taillamps are the latest in high-intensity LEDs. (The backup lamps and center stoplamp are borrowed from the Olds Alero.) The paint color for all 500 Series 1s will be a PPG urethane originally mixed for Oldsmobile’s 100th anniversary celebration, dubbed Centennial Silver. The dual racing stripes will be optional, and it’s not yet finalized whether they’ll be orange, burgundy, blue, or candy apple red (it’s possible all four will be offered).

Stand beside the car or, even more dramatic, sit inside, and it feels big. But its overall length (169.0 inches) is shorter than a Porsche Boxster‘s (171.0 inches). The difference is in the width, a stout 76.5 inches in girth that compares to the 75.7-inch-wide Viper and 73.6 Vette. That translates into not only a wide cockpit, but a fat wheel track that greatly aids stability.

The driving position is upright and no-nonsense, but the car is very easy to climb into and out of, with none of the too-high doorsill problems of C4 Corvettes. There’s ample legroom for six-footers (though not huge amounts of extra space), but the pedals are mounted quite far left in the footwell, a la Viper, and the center tunnel seems huge. The windshield (a modified Corvette component) is laid back pretty sharply; however, our high-speed testing proved there’s very little wind buffeting (possibly the lowest of any roadster) even at 100-plus-mph speeds-a great improvement over the turbulent cockpits of the Viper R/T10 and Vette. A manually operated lightweight (26-pound) cloth top, designed by Dura, stores in a shallow well behind the seats when folded. There’s room under the stowed top for only about 3 cubic feet of thin cargo, so pack carefully. A 20-gallon steel fuel tank with integral bladder is mounted beneath the rear deck panel and fills via a Cobra-like quick-release aluminum cap that, in reality, just covers a required-by-law conventional screw-on plastic cap.

The black leather bucket seats are fully manual and do not include a lumbar adjustment. Both driver and passenger receive a weird seatbelt setup (thank our boys in Washington) that merges a conventional three-point inertia-reel seatbelt (“Legally that’s what they make us install,” says Mark Visconti) with a Schroth four-point harness. It works just fine, after you get accustomed to it.

The overall design of the cockpit is quite attractive, with a ’60s nostalgic flavor melded with the contemporary shapes. GM parts-bin components are more obvious here than anywhere else on the car, such as the Camaro gauge cluster (refaced to read to 170 mph and emblazoned with the Shelby logo) and pedal assembly, Oldsmobile ventilation system controller, and sedan-spec sunvisors. There are no cupholders or glovebox, just a small storage area in the center console. There’s also no spare tire. Oh, yeah, those aren’t run-flat Goodyears, either. The rationale being that run-flats sacrifice handling, ride comfort, and unsprung weight, none of which Shelby was willing to give up. And besides, how long has it been since you’ve had a flat tire, anyway? Carry a cell phone and a can of tire sealant, bucko.

Shelby does realize that a $100K car has to offer luxuries, so he ladled on the air conditioning, tilt wheel, power windows/locks/mirrors, intermittent wipers, Homelink transmitter, and 200 watt/eight-speaker Delco Monsoon stereo with in-dash CD player. A Momo leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob complete the interior trimmings, but don’t look for any airbags; small-volume manufacturers are eligible for an exemption from the federal airbag requirement, and Shelby took ’em up on it (development costs would have been staggering).

Performance & HandlingI haven’t gone 20 yards in the Series 1 before I’m convinced of this car’s amazing structure. Accelerating out of the pits and onto Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s road course, the car feels solid, secure, tough as a diamond, yet very lightweight in the manner in which it responds to throttle, steering, and brake. The rack-and-pinion steering is very quick (Viper-plus at only 1.6 turns lock to lock, a bit too quick for my taste), but with a curious dead spot on-center. Don Rager did remind me that the car is not completely sorted out, and that there will be further tuning on virtually every control before production begins.

The Aurora V-8 sounds musclecar healthy, but it isn’t a torque monster, and most of the power lives between 4200 and 5500 rpm. Yet, thanks to the car’s low mass and short gearing, acceleration is quite strong. On a 100-degree day and hampered by slow gear changes due to a recalcitrant shifter, we still run 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds, 0-100 in 11.0, and blitz the quarter mile in 12.8 seconds at 109.9 mph. That lets you eat the lunch of every production Corvette of the past 30 years (even the ZR-1) and run neck and neck with most Vipers. A bit of shifter work, a cool day, and Carroll’s new car is ready for all challengers.

But it’s on a road course where this star shines the brightest. However, because the Series 1 is not based on any other car, my learning curve as to how it will respond is straight-up: no intuition, all surprise. Into the first turn at LVMS, a sweeping 180-degree right-hander, the car feels big, wide, like driving a continental plate. I can’t believe it’s shorter than a Boxster! The 50/50 weight balance helps give the Series 1 a very neutral feeling, but the front tires can turn into pushers (such as in a Viper or Vette), given too much throttle. Lift the throttle just a bit, and the rear comes out just enough to cancel the push; come off more, and it’ll step out further, giving the indication it wants to spin, but it won’t unless you really get in over your head.

Accelerating down the short chute to a 90-degree left-hander, the car feels more “race car” than “street car,” by a factor of 10. Turn-in response is quicker than instantaneous, and the chassis is so brilliant I find I can get back on the power well before the apex (obviously, I can go much faster into the corners than it originally seemed). Imbued with anti-squat/anti-dive geometry, the suspension delivers you quickly through the turns as though you’re sitting atop the mechanized hand of God. And the ride quality is really quite amazing.

Working the engine in its upper rev ranges, I discover a delicious area of power that is the heart and soul of this machine. Dancing through the corners, I begin playing with the car to try and get it unstuck. You have to really work at it to get the rear out under acceleration (that’s what the photographer always asks for), and it can be done, but the newest Shelby far better likes to take its set in a corner and keep slip angles to a minimum. As Photog Randy yells for “one more lap, a little wilder,” I discover the point of no return. Entering turn one after the straightaway at about 100 mph, I blip down two gears (not easy with the current shifter) and toss the car into a mad drift that’s picture-perfect for all of 2 seconds. Then she comes around. Fast. And I ain’t catching it. Determined not to be remembered as the guy who put Carroll’s million-dollar car into the pucker bushes, I manage to gather it up just before I run out of tarmac. No harm, no foul. Studying the photos later (see the “Table of Contents” pix), I discover the right front tire was completely off the ground just before the car let go.

Once “The Great Randini” is satisfied with his action photos, I can drive the Series 1 more like a proper racer. My learning curve has flattened out a bit, and I can now concentrate on the subtleties of the machine, such as the transitions from acceleration to hard braking (with no ABS, the fronts lock first), trying to downshift smoothly (no easy task when the engine doesn’t respond quickly enough to help you match revs), and listening to the gear whine of the RBT/ZF transaxle (there’s quite a bit). “I wanted a true transaxle, and ZF is where you go, so that’s what you get,” Carroll says later. (And Rager promises that most, if not all, of the other driveability concerns will be quelled by start of production.)

On the handling course, the Series 1 returns 0.94 g of lateral grip before rolling into understeer, and slices through our 600-foot slalom with an average speed of 67.0 mph. Both numbers are similar to what several Vipers and virtually every ’97-’98 Corvette have achieved, but the best Vipers will beat it. Not happy, Rager promises it will do better given another couple weeks of development, but we’re here now, and this is how it runs. To be completely fair, these tests are run at LVMS on a slipperier surface than our normal test track, so the data should improve. On a better surface, and with a fully dialed-in production Series 1, we should see lateral grip of close to 1.0 g and slalom times closing in on 70 mph.

Braking is the only area where we’re disappointed with the car’s test numbers. Although there’s plenty of stopping power and thermal reserve for severe use such as endurance racing, our 60-0-mph panic-stop test requires a lot of brake pedal modulation (remember, there’s no anti-lock) and a rather lengthy 129 feet of distance. With better modulation control, the 14.7-second 0-100-0-mph time could be significantly shortened.

The VerdictCarroll Shelby’s quest was to build his vision of a modern lightweight two-seat sports car. One with race-car levels of handling, high technology design, creature comforts, and a decent highway ride. In short, a high-performance car you could live with every day of the week. It’s not a car for the everyman, nor should it be. The Series 1 is a machine for the person who bucks conventionality, who likes to do things others claim can’t be done.

After two days of track driving, photography, and countless interviews, we’re finished with our test, and Carroll’s alone in his new car, on the high banks of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Now, he gets to drive. Just the man and his creation.

Once the rest of us see what’s happening, we stop talking and turn to watch. Shelby burns rubber out of the pits and hits the oval at redline in the first three gears. By the time he flies by our vantage point, he’s at well over 140 mph, grinning like a schoolboy. The grin lasts until well after he’s back in the pits and relaxing with us in the motorhome. Yeah, he’s happy. He likes his car. And so do we.

Pay $108,000 to own a piece of real automotive history? Created by the man who’s literally done it all?

Seems like a bargain to us.

Shelby’s Mule TeamThe production Shelby Series 1 will surround you with abundant leather trim, a nicely padded top, and a high-watt, multispeaker Monsoon sound system. But as I circle the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a Series 1 development vehicle named P3, the environment is different: Heat boils up through holes in the aluminum floor, carbon-fiber door skins flap in the wind, and dirt and oily grit from the track’s surface enter the cockpit-and every pore in my skin-from several openings. The doors don’t open, the gas gauge is dead as a rock, and the A/C doesn’t work either. Fit and finish? The P3 is a rolling amalgam of steel, aluminum, screws, rivets, wood, wires, plastic, nails, glue, and duct tape. Lots of duct tape. But the sound from the bellowing Aurora V-8 is wonderful, and the car emits distinct, race-type smells. Those laps are MT’s first experience in anything resembling a running Series 1.

As you can see from the photographs, these development hacks, often dubbed “test mules,” are no beauty queens. But they serve as a data-gathering test bed and allow a manufacturer to experiment with various settings, components, and calibrations as a vehicle design moves from auto show stand to production.

The silver display model shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show in January 1997 has been converted into a runner and dubbed P1-the first running prototype. P2, the other car made available to us at LVMS, is fairly “product correct” from a chassis and driveline standpoint, though it carries resin body panels that make it ome 350 pounds heavier than a carbon-fiber-bodied car would be.

P3, my ride, has the carbon-fiber bod and logically proves the faster of the two. In concert with this process is a second series of cars, dubbed PP, or Production Prototypes. These PP machines will have interiors and be much, much closer to customer-car spec. Each of these vehicles will also play some part in the myriad safety and emissions certification tests the Series 1 will undergo.

Of particular interest is some of the test gear aboard. A large digital display unit can be programmed to give dozens of real-time readings via sensors installed throughout the car. The P3 also carries a data recorder. In a manner similar to a flight recorder aboard an aircraft, this equipment can track and record such factors exact engine or oil temp, rpm, speed, or virtually any other operating parameter during an entire test-for replay and analysis at a later time. All the P cars are driven, disassembled, driven some more, adjusted, tested, and otherwise fiddled with by various Team Shelby members on a daily basis.

It’s extremely rare that the media ever has a chance to actually drive any development vehicle. But Carroll his own-self insisted that P2 and P3 be brought from GM’s Arizona Proving Grounds to Las Vegas to give MT readers an even closer, more intimate inside look at the development of the Series 1. After having developed many an automobile in his day, Shelby understands the historical significance these cars represent.

And what does one of these rough-and-tumble machines cost? It depends upon how one does the accounting, of course. However, an anonymous-but informed-source says to “figure at least seven figures” -Matt Stone